Anja Niedringhaus, a celebrated journalist and veteran collaborator of The Associated Press, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, was killed on Friday by a policeman when she covered an electoral process due to take place on Saturday in Afghanistan.
According to Reuters, the AP revealed that during the attack, another journalist, Canadian Kathy Gannon, 60, was injured when they were shot while sitting in the back of a car.
Niedringhaus, a 48-year-old German national, had risked her life in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia among others, and her lends captured some of the most memorable scenes in recent years by looking at the life of the involuntary victims of war in those countries.
ABC reported that the German photographer started her career as a photojournalist when she was still in university, working for various newspaper and magazines. However, her coverage of the fall of the Berlin wall won her a spot in the European Pressphoto Agency in 1990, an agency she worked with for many years covering the terrible conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
Niedringhaus joined the AP team in 2002 and since then had one of the most outstanding participations in Middle East coverage, as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In 2005 she was a part of the AP team which won the Pulitzer Prize for the coverage of the war in Iraq; however, during her long and successful career she won numerous journalistic awards and honors for her work.
The policeman who opened fire was arrested
According to reports from Reuters, the two journalists were traveling in a convoy of electoral workers in the district of Tanai, in the province of Khost. The caravan was protected by the National Afghan Army and local police, and the two reporters traveled in their own car with an independent contractor and a driver.
The contractor said that the reportes were in the vehicle waiting for the convoy to move, when a unit commander, identified as Naquibulla, approached the car and shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and discharged an AK-47 against them.
The man was arrested and Nedringhaus' death was confirmed, while Gannon is reported to be in critical state.